


Onto the World Cup!

by SorceressSupreme



Series: E-sports AU [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - E-Sports, Multi, the world cup edition!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2020-10-19 11:28:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20656481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SorceressSupreme/pseuds/SorceressSupreme
Summary: Fury is putting together a team.A team of the US's mightiest Overwatch players.





	1. Welcome to the <s>Avengers Initiative</s> US National Team!

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate title: I gave up on pretending this was about Overwatch and now it's a love letter to the Women's World Cup and the USWNT 😍

"Fury is putting together a team." Coulson says,

Natasha is standing with Steve and Clint. Steve crosses his arms over his chest. Natasha raises an eyebrow at Coulson,

"For the World Cup," Clint says in the space his teammates leave,

Coulson nods in the affirmative,

Natasha's eyebrow remains raised. Steve frowns.

"You three were the only ones on Delta to meet Fury's criteria. Glare at him, not me," Coulson says.

Natasha sighs after a moment and turns to the other two. Clint shrugs. Steve uncrosses his arms.

With their silent agreement out of the way, "Who else is on the team?" she asks.

* * *

"You thought you could get away from us," Tony smirks at her, shaking a finger at her,

Natasha glares as she walks by him to get to the penthouse's couches. She doesn't have to look behind her to know Clint is also glaring. Steve posts up between her and Tony. His arms are crossed over his chest again.

Bruce and Thor are the next out of the elevator. Natasha raises an eyebrow at Tony. Steve smirks.

It seems that Delta is the majority team here.

Tony fidgets his way away from Delta's gazes, "Didn't Fury call this meeting? Where-"

"Keep your pants on, Stark,"

Fury appears from a place in the penthouse that startles even Stark. Phil and Pepper are a step behind him, standing to either side.

"Welcome to the US National team," Fury says, looking at each of them in turn,

"Hold on. I thought we agreed to call this 'The Avengers Initiative'," Tony interjects,

Fury turns toward him. The fact that he can imply raising an eyebrow without doing it is intensely impressive to Natasha.

"Why? Every other team is just 'The France National Team'," Bruce half-laughs, giving Stark a bewildered stare,

Tony _pouts_.

"If there are no further objections, let's get started," Fury says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well it's only *checks watch* 2 months after the finals for the Women's World Cup..... uhhh.... so this isn't _timely_ but I hope it's still fun!


	2. Synching together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new team members learn how to work together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen, I'm very impressionable and I was watching the Netflix release of Evangelion when I wrote this....

"We've designated a series of drills to help hone in on team synergy." Phil and Pepper say.

Fury disappeared at some point while they were setting up their computers. Tony has set up an entirely separate LAN room from the Avenger's normal practice area. He glares at the large 'Avengers Initiative' signage that's hanging over the room as they walk by it,

"First we're splitting you into pairs to test your synchronization potential." Pepper says, "Nat, you're up first."

Natasha high fives Clint and the pair move to their computers,

"Someone _not_ on Delta," Phil adds, arching an eyebrow at them,

"That's cheating," Pepper adds, smiling,

It's her cool, collected business smile, too. Natasha knows she has no hope of convincing her when she's got that look. She grimaces and looks at the rest of her… newer teammates.

"Fine. Bruce." she says, clipped,

He nods and sits down at the computer on the exact opposite side of the block of machines from hers.

Tony picks Clint, so Steve bro-fists with Thor.

Natasha prides herself in her ability to read others. She has no doubt she'll be able to adapt to Bruce's playstyle.

Until they actually start playing, anyway.

Bruce's style is aggressive. Then it's not. Then it is. There's no discernible control, it's like he's on a hair trigger all the time.

"He's your teammate," Natasha says to Thor after dinner, after losing four straight hours of games, "How do you deal with him?"

Thor laughs, "Oh, we do not 'deal' with Banner. He is a one-man army. You're either in his path or you’re around to run cleanup."

He pauses to take a long drink from his beer. Meanwhile, Natasha presses against the bridge of her nose to try and quell a building headache,

"Loki would call him mercurial."

"I have never said this about Loki, but that’s really underselling it." Natasha sighs.

* * *

The next day, they continue the synch assessments.

Natasha gets the highest score with Tony, which causes them both to raise their eyebrows at the other. Clint scores best with Bruce and Natasha tries to not audibly sigh in relief. Thor and Steve are already coming up with ridiculous combos for their two heroes during dinner.

"Now all we need to do is find your team strategy," Phil says,

"Isn't that your job?" Natasha raises an eyebrow at their coaches over the rim of her glass,

Phil shrugs,

"We're a bit bogged down with the travel logistics. Limited timeline and all that," Pepper says, "Seems like a good place for our co-captains to step in and help,"

"Oh?" Natasha, Steve and Tony say, varying in tone from curious to suspicious,

"We were hoping you three would say that," Phil says, one corner of his mouth twitching upwards,

Natasha narrows her eyes at him.. All this time with Fury is making Phil into a cryptic bastard, as well.

"What's the pay like?" Steve asks when he sees Natasha and Tony both beginning to nod,

Their eyes cut to him. Then each other. There's a passing wariness at their same-brain reactions, but then they both sit back, deferring to Steve,

"We'll have the paperwork before your flights tomorrow," Pepper smiles knowingly.

* * *

When Clint gets up in the middle of the night, he finds Tony, Nat and Bruce at the eye of a hurricane of papers. Notebooks, stacks of printer paper, paper airplanes, post-it notes. Everything. Clint feels like he can’t even look at the room for too long without getting a hundred papercuts. Yet he can’t look away from the heartwarming sight of Nat, hair slowly flying out of its bun, wrapped in one of Bucky's old sweatshirts and going toe-to-toe with the other super geniuses on the team.

After dinner, she'd been worried that they were giving her the co-captain-ship out of turn. This is some solid evidence otherwise. He can't wait to get to the World Cup and have more people give her the credit she deserves.

"Are-" he clears his throat when his voice comes out sleep-rough, "Are you guys staying up? I can make coffee..."

Bruce checks his watch and swears,

"Aw, early bird," Tony paces his hands over his chest, eyes growing large on command, "Are you offering us your proverbial worm?"

Clint blinks,

"Too many words for so la- er, early, Stark," Natasha says through a yawn,

'Coffee. Please.' she signs to Clint at the same time,

'Coffee!' Tony mimics, adding more enthusiasm into the sign,

He nods, “One pot, coming up.”

* * *

It's three more pots of coffee before they're on the plane to Wakanda and the World Cup.

"So," Tony says, swiveling in his seat to face the rest of the team, "Anyone know what Wakanda is like this time of year?"

"Anyone know what it's like... _at all?_" Bruce counters, "I'd never even heard of it before their national team won the last World Cup,"

"Classic America-centric education," Thor laughs,

A group of glares and eyebrow raises get directed at the Asgardian prince, "Only a joke!" he amends quickly, "I had not heard of them until recently, as well. They are a nation that values their privacy and independence,"

Natasha clears her throat, "Well Shuri and Okoye offered to show us around. They even promised no tourist traps,"

Phil, from the back of the plane, coughs pointedly,

"Whenever we have some free time during the tournament," Natasha amends, rolling her eyes so only her teammates could see,

"That better not have been an eyeroll, Romanoff," Phil says,

Natasha peers around the seat to confirm that he has no line of sight to her, "Of course not, Phil. That would be incredibly unprofessional."

Phil just smirks at her from behind his glasses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, my fictional world cup operates on Eurovision rules. deal with it.


	3. Home and away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha makes some friends :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably should have said this earlier but there's like 0 Overwatch in this story... sorry...

When they arrive in Wakanda, they're assigned a group of practice computers among a much larger cohort in an open floor plan practice area. It spans an entire floor, overlooking the seamless fusion of forest and technology that is Wakandan architecture. They've barely started to set up before they're shepherded off to a formal welcome dinner.

Natasha has enough time to get changed into the not-entirely-formal-but-_very_-sparkly dress she'd deemed appropriate for both dinner- and more importantly- a possible afterparty when Thor knocks on her door,

"Loki is not here to braid my hair," his face is crestfallen, hands wringing together, "Can you help?"

"If you can do some work on my hair, then you've got yourself a deal,"

Thor bounces back surprisingly quickly, bounding into Natasha's room and placing himself on the floor at the foot of her bed. If this wasn't Thor, she'd be very suspicious she'd just gotten played.

"So Loki is here?" Natasha asks as she's sorting out the braid arrangement she's going to try,

"Indeed. But they joined the Asgardian team and says we are enemies now," Thor's head droops forward slightly at this,

"We'll just have to show them up, then, won't we?" Natasha says, fingers twisting through Thor's hair.

* * *

Everyone is sitting at a long, communal table for dinner. It makes scoping out the competition easy.

Asgard is here, sitting a few spaces away from the US team. It seems Loki has done their's and Sif's hair for the occasion, if them still fussing over Sif’s hair is any indication. And despite her short hair, the style still oozes high class sophistication.In between Val and Hela is a broad-shouldered blonde woman with eyes so blue they practically _glow_.

Wakanda's national team is seated at the head of the table along with the royal family. Shuri sees Natasha and waves. She's about to shout down the table when her mother interrupts her with a sharp look.

'Good to see you!' she signs instead,

Natasha wonders if Kate has been teaching her or if Shur had decided to pick it up on her own,

'You too,' she signs back, punctuating it with a short wave.

‘Rude to talk across dinner,’ T’challa signs, giving them both an amused smile,

Shuri rolls her eyes but signs back, ‘sorry,’ and goes back to the conversation she was having with the rest of Wakanda’s team.

Next, Natasha spots the Canadian team by the player who could be McCoy's twin but for the white hair instead of blue. The rest of the contingents are less familiar to her, so she focuses on the food and her team. Before she knows it, the dinner is coming to a close. Natasha is expecting some socializing after dinner. Maybe some taunts thrown around. But everyone just drifts out with their teams. It seems like they're all focusing on honing their own games above getting under each others’ skins. She goes to bed both disappointed and excited for the competition to come.

* * *

The days in Wakanda are part training and part promotion for the tournament as they shoot short video packages that will be aired as team or player highlights.

Natasha ends up shooting against the Asgardian's new flex player,

"Jane Foster," she introduces herself,

Natasha shakes her hand,

"How'd you end up on the Asgardian national team?" Natasha asks during a break from doing over-exaggerated power poses in the middle of Wakanda's financial district. Awkward.

"Thor is my husband," Jane says,

Natasha almost chokes on her water, eyes bulging as the blonde laughs and pats her back.

"I qualified for the Asgardian team over him so I guess he went to try out for other national teams and got on the US team,"

"He also moved away from Asgard with his team this season, right?" Natasha asks, unable to stop herself.

She'd been away from only 1/3 of her relationship for a few weeks and she was feeling the stress of it even after such a short time.

"I paid him back by stealing his username while he was transferring," Jane winks.

Natasha snorts loudly. Jane starts giggling, quickly graduating into peals of laughter, head tipping back with the force of it. Natasha laughs with her and the rest of the shoot flies by after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish I knew why I talked about braids all the time...
> 
> Maybe because I cut off all my hair a few years ago??? and now it's too short to braid????


	4. Insomnia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I.... kind of got very distracted by the Great September Games Deluge of 2019 and only got around to editing this a few days ago... hopefully chapter 5 (aka the last chapter) will be done this weekend!

It's the night before their semi-final match and Natasha can't sleep.

It's not quite nerves, but she can't get her mind to stop running through plays and comps and how the pick order of the maps will aff–

A knock on her door shocks her out of her head. She checks the clock and it's well after midnight. She grimaces.

Natasha moves to the door and hopes she hasn't been keeping someone up with her pacing above their heads. But when she looks through the peephole, she's suddenly fumbling with the locks and can't get the door open fast enough,

"James!" she grins, launching herself at him,

He grunts as he catches her. He's solid, solid, solid. With all the time apart during training and the start of the World Cup, she'd gotten used to just thinking of him as an ethereal being in a computer.

He lifts her up, hugging her tighter. It seems like the feeling is mutual.

"I thought you weren't getting in until tomorrow," she says into his neck, scratchy against his stubble,

"Couldn't wait any longer to see you," he says, burying his nose in her hair,

"Sap," she grins, nudging him,

He backs up and Natasha can see his duffel waiting in the hallway behind him,

"Clint?" she asks, angling her head towards the bag,

"Apparently asleep. Which means he can't hear me knocking," he shrugs, "Which _you should be too,_"

"Hey! Now you have somewhere to sleep thanks to my non-sleeping," she says,

She holds the door open for him as he hauls his bag in. He eyes the TV that she'd left on as white noise to try and lull herself to sleep,

"Isn't it movie night?" he says after the program that had been on ends and an infomercial starts playing,

Natasha checks her phone for the time, "I think that's the jetlag talking,"

But James is already pulling the pillows off her bed and piling them with the sheets on the floor to make a nest at the foot of the bed. She sighs and opens up the movie menu and picks something that won't be too loud or interesting.

Natasha lays herself in James' lap, taking a moment to luxuriate in how easy it is to touch him now that he's _right here_ and not hours and time zones away.

Mostly, she enjoys completely invading his personal space.

He scoffs softly at this, already combing his hand through her hair, taking the heat out of his initial reaction. Natasha hums, leaning back into his hands because she knows he secretly loves her being demanding. Both of them, really. But he gives Clint a harder time before caving to his demands.

The next thing she remembers is waking up in a pile, head still in James' lap and his head bent back against the foot of the bed, snoring. She feels a deep stab of longing for Clint. Which is ridiculous since they've barely gone two hours without seeing each other since they started training for the World Cup. Which was months ago. If it were anyone else, she'd be absolutely sick of him by now.

Still. She selfishly wants to have Clint curled up against her. Selfishly wants to see his eyes light up when he sees James again.

But then James groans and Natasha realizes that he'd probably been sleeping uncomfortably on the plane, only to come straight here to fall asleep with his head cranked back in an even more uncomfortable position. She sighs, wincing as her own neck cracks.

She manages to maneuver a three-quarters asleep James into bed and falls back asleep with his arm sleep-heavy on her back.

* * *

In the morning, the three captains meet for an extra early breakfast.

Natasha makes the strongest tea she can stomach while Tony and Steve look annoyingly awake for the hour.

"Is it just me or does our beloved killer seem extra grumpy this morning?" Tony asks Steve,

Natasha takes a break from vigorously dunking her teabags in a vain attempt to make her tea brew faster to glare at Tony. He grimaces, body going rigid for a moment, before pushing the yogurt he'd just opened towards her. Natasha grumbles. but accepts the peace offering.

"Anything I can do to help, co-captain?" Steve asks, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth,

Natasha's shoulders slump as she lets out a breath, "No... no. I just couldn't get a lot of sleep last night and now I'm worried I won't be at my best for the matches,"

Tony sits back down with two yogurts- another for Natasha and one for himself- and grins at them both, "Oh, we don't even need to be at our best to beat Japan's team,"

Steve glares at Tony this time,

"Alright! Underestimating your enemies is bad form," Tony twirls his hand in the air as he casts about for the right solution, "How about: Now that we know you're not at your best we can support you better. Huh?"

He waggles his eyebrows at Steve.

Steve rolls his eyes but goes back to his breakfast. Tony winks at Natasha. She smirks at him over her yogurt.

"Are we ready to talk strategy now?" Steve asks, eyeing Natasha's empty teacup,

Natasha sighs dramatically, but waves the hand not holding onto her mug to indicate Steve should continue. They might as well get it over with.

Steve slides his notebook towards them, "Here's what I've got prepared,"

Natasha hunches close to it, trying to make the words make sense to her tired brain. She blinks, squints, and can still only make her brain grasp part of the plan. She rotates the notebook towards Tony so he has a chance to look at it.

He shakes his head and pushes the notebook back to Steve, "No need,"

Steve narrows his eyes at the other man.

"I told you. I'm not worried about this one. Gotta save some brain power for the finals," Tony says, "The only plans I made last night are what I'm going to wear for the after-afterparty once we get through the finals,"

"Tony-" Steve leans forwards, eyebrows drawn together,

"I've had mine planned since we landed," Natasha replies, smiling slyly over her cup,

"Natasha!" Steve cries,

But neither are chastised by Steve's scandalized expression.

* * *

By the time they make it onto the stage, Natasha feels significantly more prepared.

It might be the third cup of tea she's now nursing. Or it could be the way Clint is bouncing beside her, eager to get a glimpse of Bucky in the crowd. He grips her arm tightly when he spots their boyfriend. Bucky is dressed head to toe in their US National gear and Natasha thinks her heart might have stopped due to sheer embarrassment. She didn't even realize that was possible. Judging by the blush creeping up the back of Clint's neck, though, he's having a _very_ different reaction than her.

He _winks_ at them when he notices their reactions and Natasha swears vengeance on him.

* * *

The match against Japan isn't easy, but it does go smoothly. She has a few moments where her reactions aren't as sharp as they should be or she mis-calls a play. But true to their word, Tony or Steve are always there to back her up.

* * *

That night, she sleeps soundly pressed between two familiar bodies.

* * *

"Well, well, red, you're looking positively non-murderous this morning," Tony drawls, a smirk playing at the edge of his mouth,

All Natasha has to do is wink and watch as Steve turns vaguely green and Tony turns an impressively saturated red.

She smiles all the way to the finals.


	5. #winning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _We are the champions, my friends  
And we'll keep on fighting till the end  
We are the champions  
We are the champions  
No time for losers  
'Cause we are the champions......_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Natasha notes that "real athletes" do things differently and I wanted to quickly point out that is Nat's point of view, not necessarily mine ;)

Natasha, Steve and Tony are set aside by Pepper and Fury for a series of post-game interviews with different websites, TV networks and even a few print publications. She briefly envies real athletes who get to do most of this in one large press conference at the end of a game.

Their last scheduled interview is a group one.

Seeing her co-captains again releases a wave of giddiness in her that she didn't expect. The dopey smile Steve gives her and the giggle from Tony tell her that they're feeling the same way.

They all jump slightly when the interviewer clears her throat,

"How was it working together? It's very unique to have three captains for a team of six,"

Tony grins his thousand-watt grin. Natasha shrugs and Steve laughs,

"It works better than you'd think," they all say at the same time,

They dissolve into giggles as they look at each other slightly wide-eyed. The interviewer laughs as well, looking impressed,

"Alright! Well what are you all looking forward to now that you're going home one world championship richer?"

"Get my team paid more," Steve says immediately, smiling all too innocently,

Natasha laughs, sudden and loud,

"Well if you're tackling hat one... I want to see more diversity on this stage at the next tournament,"

The interviewer nods enthusiastically,

"Uh, I don't know about these nerds, but my only plans are to _fucking party_!"

A loud cheer erupts from the vague direction of the locker rooms. Natasha suppresses a laugh at that. The rest of their team is clearly watching their interview on the livestream,

"I think that's our cue, then," Tony winks at the interviewer and grabs Steve and Natasha, dragging them back towards where the afterparty has already begun.

* * *

"-tasha! Natasha! Natasha!"

She hears the chanting as she approaches the locker room. Based on the volume and various screams, her teammates are well and truly smashed already.

She smirks to herself.

"What's up, losers?" she calls as she walks into the room,

Wanda rushes forward, hugging Natasha tightly and giving her the rest of her open drink so she can pick up a new one. Natasha half-sighs and gently replaces the bottle so Wanda has slightly less to drink rather than more.

Tony is somehow already on top of the benches, dancing and cheering for her, "You gotta catch up, too!" he waves his drink at her,

Pepper, slightly in front of Tony, shakes her head in exasperation. But she still grins and pours Natasha a glass of champagne.

"Oh shit, you got the good stuff!" Natasha exclaims, holding the bottle up for closer inspection,

"Don't tell Fury," Pepper winks.

She hugs Natasha, then retreats to keep an eye on Tony and drink at a more sedate pace with Phil.

Steve clinks his glass with hers,

"Cheers," they say, grinning at each other,

"What'd we miss?"

"Sam claims about half a drunk rendition of 'We are the Champions' before they realized we weren't here and decided it needed to wait,"

Steve's smile tells her just how loveable their idiots are being. So Natasha smiles back, brighter even than Steve,

"What did they sing instead?" Natasha sips from her glass,

"Old Town Road."

Natasha snorts, swallowing quickly to avoid getting champagne everywhere, "Well I'm glad I missed that one,"

"Careful, if anyone hears you say that, they'll start on it for sure,"

"Not if I remind them of 'We are the Champions'," Natasha says back.

Sam and Thor are singing to themselves in a corner, but they jump up and demand she share a drink with them before she passes by,

"Captain! Captain!" Thor cheers,

"Nat! Nat...asha!" Sam agrees, "C'mon, do a beer with us!"

Natasha laughs but obliges them as they clink their cans with hers and chug from them. Thor finishes first and claps them both on the back so hard, they spill the rest of their beers all over the floor (and their uniforms).

She hugs them both- briefly considering how much alcohol she's already had- as they move on to arguing over who owes who one of the free beers,

Natasha is beginning to grow suspicious of where Clint and James might be when she hears a 'thump' from around the corner of the lockers. She smirks to herself, sneaking around the corner silently. 

On the other side, she's treated to the sight of her boys deep in make-out territory. 

James has Clint's shirt half off and Clint has made an absolute mess of James' hair, now resembling more of a bird's nest than a bun. Their beers and champagne glasses have been scattered, forgotten on the floor behind them.

She's leaning up against the wall, sipping from her champagne when they finally notice her. They're panting, mouths glistening and eyes so dilated she can she her reflection as she shivers.

She wonders if her own eyes look the same to them.

Bucky reaches out, taking the champagne from her and draining it without breaking eye contact.

"He says he wants to taste what being a world champion is like," Clint informs her from over James' shoulder,

So she's smiling when he kisses her. He twists his hands into her jersey and she has to grab onto his shoulders for balance as he's licking into her mouth. The intensity he's bringing makes her groan into his mouth. He swallows that, too.

They jump apart when some ungodly wailing starts from the other side of the lockers.

Dazed, it takes Natasha a moment to identify the noise as a particularly drunk rendition of _We are the Champions_ Clint gets a glint in his eye. Opens his mouth and takes a deep breath,

"Clint-" James tries to cut him off,

Natasha just grabs him and kisses him quickly before he can start singing in earnest.

It's only to delay the inevitable, though.

They join the rest of the team, singing as loud as they can, laughing at how bad the whole thing sounds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> basically this whole chapter was based on [Ashlyn Harris' insta stories](https://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2019/7/8/20686210/ashlyn-harris-instagram-story-uswnt-world-cup-celebration) after the women's team won the world cup😂 watching it all happen “live” in my updates was wild...
> 
> Thanks to everyone who stuck around for the whole story! It definitely took me a while to post despite being done writing it ages ago 🙇♀️😩 hopefully the next one will go a bit faster!


End file.
